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Australia will be meeting West Indies in the final of the DLF Cup to be played on the 24th as they handed a crushing 18-run defeat to India. Australia had struggled in the afternoon to post 213 yet India lost the match following dismal show from its batsmen except Dinesh Mongia who stayed right till the end remaining unbeaten on 63. He got support in patches from Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni but those two batsmen fell at the wrong time after looking very good. India did get a couple of bad decisions that might have affected the result of the game but it was the better team that had won in the end. Brett Lee was the man for Australia and of course the Man of the Match taking a fifer which included the big wickets of Tendulkar, Sehwag and Dhoni. India now take the flight back to home following this poor performance in a tournament that was funded by its board.
The day started with Ricky Ponting winning the toss and choosing to bat on a good batting track. Ponting himself was back in the side along with Damien Martyn, Brad Hogg, Glenn McGrath coming in for Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Dan Cullen and Nathan Bracken. India were without Yuvraj Singh who was unwell and Sreesanth who was dropped for reasons better known to the Indian think tank and were replaced with Dinesh Mongia and Mohammad Kaif.
The bowling was good and a disciplined one from Ajit Agarkar and Munaf Patel keeping the runs down for Australia. Simon Katich feeling the pinch of not able to break free slashed at a short of length delivery from Agarkar only to be brilliantly taken at Suresh Raina flying to his left. Australia lost its first wicket with 36 on the board in the 9th over. India had the much bigger wicket of Ricky Ponting very soon as he had played the pick up shot off Munaf Patel straight to the man at fine leg. Ponting fell leaving Australia at 49 for 2 after 11.1 overs and his team couldn’t make full use of the powerplay blocks although the next man in, Damien Martyn had slapped RP Singh’s long hop for a six over covers. Hayden was the only man getting few boundaries here and there consistently and he was run out following a terrible mix up with his partner. Hayden by then had notched up his 27th ODI fifty with the help of nine fours. Damien Martyn (19) like Hayden was also run out and Australia soon slipped down to 97 for 4. If that wasn’t enough for the Aussies, Dinesh Mongia got the dangerous Andrew Symonds lbw in the same over as the right hander was struck on the pads playing for the turn which wasn’t there.
The World Champions were hoping for the Hussey-Haddin show to repeat but luckily for India, Michael Hussey was done in by Harbhajan’s brilliant bowling. Harbhajan had opted to bowl round the sticks to the left hander and he got his off break to drift into the left hander inducing him into working that onto the onside, the sharp turn got the outside edge that went straight to Dravid at slip. At 117 for 6, it looked like India would be bundling out the Aussies for something under 175 but that wasn’t going to happen as Hogg along with Haddin chose to take this opportunity to showcase their batting skills. Haddin was earlier called back after being initially given run out as the third umpire thought that Harbhajan had disturbed the stumps without having the ball in the hand while attempting a second run off a sweep shot from Hussey. The wicket keeper batsman kept faith in his ability and he jumped down the track to collect four sixes. Hogg on the other end was getting busy through his square cuts and the Aussies were looking good to get to a fighting total. Haddin finally fell in the 45th over after miscuing his slog off RP Singh. He fell for 46 which had come in 63 balls and his partnership with Hogg was worth 77 to take Australia to 194 for 7. India were lucky to clean up the Aussies inside the 50 over as Hogg (38) and Lee couldn’t stay till the end to get their fireworks going. India was in with a terrific position having bowled out the Australians for 213 in 48.1 overs. Harbhajan Singh was once again the best bowler for India with figures of 1 for 24 in 10 overs. Dinesh Mongia had done well with his slow left arm spin to complement Harbhajan Singh in the middle stages, his figures were 1 for 43 in 9 overs.
There was a change in the batting order for India and Virender Sehwag finally got back to his opening position as Dravid chose to come in the middle order. Action started right away as Umpire Mark Benson had lifted his finger to give Sachin Tendulkar caught behind following a loud appeal. McGrath was the bowler whose short one had struck Tendulkar on his shoulder in an attempted pull shot and the ball flew straight into Haddin’s gloves. Benson shocked everyone by calling back Tendulkar as he reversed his decision after realizing that he had done a mistake. It was a right move according to the law but Tendulkar didn’t trouble the scorers much as he slashed Brett Lee’s quick delivery straight to point. Sachin Tendulkar could make just 4 and India were off to a dismal start at 7 for 1 in the 3rd over. It was soon 2 for 20 as Sehwag was neither forward nor back to be bowled through the gate by Brett Lee for 10.
Skipper Rahul Dravid who joined Mohammad Kaif had started to build a much needed partnership. Kaif was getting his innings into a good shape, driving the ball sweetly but he just couldn’t carry on making a big score. He was caught and bowled by Stuart Clark after looking to drive on the up. Kaif made 21 in 37 balls with 2 fours. Stuart Clark who was hit for 87 in his 7 overs against West Indies struck for the second time for his side in the same over as he got Dravid rapped up on his backpad after shuffling way too across his stumps. At 50 for 4, Aussies were truly on the top with two new batsmen Dinesh Mongia and Suresh Raina in the middle who were yet to make serious impact at the International Level with their batting. But both left handers didn’t panic and batted out according to their ability and India were getting back on track as the two stole singles with ease. Suresh Raina had the youthful exuberance in his batting and he had smacked Symonds on the up towards long on for a massive six to keep the required run rate under a check. His promising innings came to an end when he had failed to read Brad Hogg’s googly, the one that turns into the lefties to chop his cut shot onto the stumps. Suresh Raina made an attractive 26 with two fours and a six to put on 46 for the 5th wicket. The next man in Mahendra Singh Dhoni batted out sensibly along with Dinesh Mongia to slowly take India into the comfort zone. Dhoni who was mostly playing all along the ground had also got a six which was a straight hit over the bowler Stuart Clark’s head taking on the long off fielder. Ponting had to bring back Brett Lee back in the game to try and see if his extra pace could get the wicket of Dhoni or not. It worked exactly that way and Dhoni fell cross batting Brett Lee’s short and rising delivery straight to Damien Martyn at sweeper covers. Dhoni was out for 23 with India 56 runs short of victory with just 4 wickets in hand. Replays had later shown that Brett Lee had overstepped the crease in that delivery.
It was a tough task for Mongia to get the remaining runs along with the tail. Ajit Agarkar and Harbhajan Singh who were the only hopes of getting India close to victory with Mongia couldn’t last long. Harbhajan was unlucky to be given out caught behind off Symonds although he didn’t get any edge. India were in tatters with still 28 runs to win and just two wickets in hand. Dinesh Mongia did the cardinal mistake of not taking most of the strike and go for the big ones and Brett Lee exploited that by taking the wickets of RP Singh and then Munaf Patel to seal the victory for his side. Mongia was stranded on 63 which had come in 90 balls with the help of 4 fours. It was a good innings from him but the finishing touch wasn’t provided by him. India were bowled out for 195 in the 44th over with Brett Lee ending up with 5 for 38. Brad Hogg bowled his chinamans and googlies decently well to pick up two crucial wickets giving away 48 in his 10.